DETAILED ACTION
This Office action for U.S. Patent Application No. 19/321,331 is responsive to communications filed 4 June 2026, in reply to the Non-final Rejection of 15 May 2026.
Claims 1, 2, 6, and 7 are pending.
In the previous Office action, claims 1, 2, 6, and 7 were rejected under 35 U.S.C. § 103 as obvious over U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2008/0170612 A1 (“Zhou”) in view of U.S. Patent No. 7,580,578 B1 (“Onno”).
Notice of Pre-AIA or AIA Status
The present application, filed on or after March 16, 2013, is being examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA .
Requirement for Information – 37 C.F.R. § 1.105
The following is a quotation of the appropriate sections of 37 C.F.R. § 1.105(a)(1) that form the basis for the Requirement for Information under this section made in this Office action:
In the course of examining or treating a matter in a pending or abandoned application filed under 35 U.S.C. 111 or 371 (including a reissue application), in a patent, or in a reexamination proceeding, the examiner or other Office employee may require the submission, from individuals identified under § 1.56(c), or any assignee, of such information as may be reasonably necessary to properly examine or treat the matter, for example:
(ii) Search: Whether a search of the prior art was made, and if so, what was searched.
(viii) Technical information known to applicant. Technical information known to application concerning the related art, the disclosure, the claimed subject matter, other factual information pertinent to patentability, or concerning the accuracy of the examiner’s stated interpretation of such items.
Applicant and the assignee of this application are required under 37 C.F.R. § 1.105 to provide the following information that the examiner has determined is reasonably necessary to the examination of this application.
The information is required to enter in the record the documents material to patentability suggested by the applicant as relevant to this examination in the Certification Statement filed with the 19 May 2026 Information Disclosure Statement (IDS).
In response to this requirement, please provide a copy of each “communication from a foreign patent office in a counterpart foreign application not more than three months prior to the filing of the” 19 May 2026 IDS that cited any item of information disclosed in the IDS.
In responding to those requirements that require copies of documents, where the document is a bound text or a single article over 50 pages, the requirement may be met by providing copies of those pages that provide the particular subject matter indicated in the requirement, or where such subject matter is not indicated, the subject matter found in applicant’s disclosure.
The fee and certification requirements of 37 C.F.R. § 1.97 are waived for those documents submitted in reply to this requirement. The other requirements of 37 C.F.R. § 1.98 are not waived. This waiver extends only to those documents within the scope of this requirement under 37 C.F.R. § 1.105 that are included in the applicant’s first complete communication responding to this requirement. Any supplemental replies subsequent to the first communication responding to this requirement and any information disclosures beyond the scope of this requirement under 37 C.F.R. § 1.105 are subject to the fee and certification requirements of 37 C.F.R. § 1.97.
The applicant is reminded that the reply to this requirement must be made with candor and good faith under 37 C.F.R. § 1.56. Where the applicant does not have or cannot readily obtain an item of required information, a statement that the item is unknown or cannot be readily obtained may be accepted as a complete reply to the requirement for that item.
This requirement is an attachment of the enclosed Office action. A complete reply to the enclosed Office action must include a complete reply to this requirement. The time period for reply to this requirement coincides with the time period for reply to the enclosed Office action.
Response to Arguments
Applicant's arguments filed with respect to representative claim 1 have been fully considered but are moot in view of new grounds of rejection. With respect to the arguments against Onno specifically, the independent claims as amended remove all references to the resizing limitations on which Onno was relied. With respect to the new limitations, it is respectfully submitted that, as will be shown in full below, U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2008/007648 (“Chen”) at paragraph 0032 and figures 5 and 6A discloses the claimed candidate modes.
Claim Rejections - 35 U.S.C. § 103
In the event the determination of the status of the application as subject to AIA 35 U.S.C. §§ 102 and 103 (or as subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. §§ 102 and 103) is incorrect, any correction of the statutory basis (i.e., changing from AIA to pre-AIA ) for the rejection will not be considered a new ground of rejection if the prior art relied upon, and the rationale supporting the rejection, would be the same under either status.
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. § 103 which forms the basis for all obviousness rejections set forth in this Office action:
A patent for a claimed invention may not be obtained, notwithstanding that the claimed invention is not identically disclosed as set forth in section 102, if the differences between the claimed invention and the prior art are such that the claimed invention as a whole would have been obvious before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to a person having ordinary skill in the art to which the claimed invention pertains. Patentability shall not be negated by the manner in which the invention was made.
Claims 1, 2, 6, and 7 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. § 103 as being unpatentable over U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2008/0170612 A1 (“Zhou”) in view of U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2008/0007648 A1 (“Chen”).
Zhou, directed to a video codec, teaches with respect to claim 1 a method for processing an image, the method comprising:
receiving a bitstream for the image (Fig. 3, receiving input stream NAL);
obtaining a decoded image by decoding the bitstream (id., entropy decoding 212 and inverse transform and processing 304);
determining a mode for reconstructing the decoded image based on reconstruction-related information included in the bitstream (¶ 0024, control code); and
reconstructing the decoded image based on the mode (id., rotation and mirror 302 in decoding pipeline);
wherein the mode comprises a plurality of candidate modes including flipping, rotating[,] and a combination of the flipping and the rotating (Fig. 1, various rotate and mirror transforms),
wherein the reconstructing the decoded image comprises rearranging pixels in the decoded image (¶ 0029–31, Fig. 7; changing pixel addresses).
The claimed invention differs from Zhou in that the invention specifies performing the pixel rearrangement based on specific information indicating a set list of eight candidate modes. Zhou mentions control for the rotation and mirror, and Fig. 1 illustrates five of the eight candidate modes, but does not go into the claimed detail. However, Chen, directed to rotating video as part of streaming, teaches with respect to claim 1:
wherein the reconstruction-related information is integrated information indicating one among eight candidate modes . . . comprising a 0-degree rotation, a 90-degree rotation, a 180-degree rotation, a 270-degree rotation, a horizontal flipping, a 90-degree rotation and then horizontal flipping, a 180-degree rotation and then horizontal flipping1, [and] a 270-degree rotation and then horizontal flipping (Fig. 5, ¶ 0030, rotate 90, 180, and 270 degrees and horizontal and vertical flip are specific rotation engines that can be picked; 0032, Fig. 6A, selecting a rotation parameter that can be a 0 degree rotation or include flipping).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of effective filing to modify Zhou to control the flipping and rotation using parameters for specific rotation degrees and flipping directions, as taught by Chen, in order to simplify the processing by using dedicated circuits for these operations. Chen ¶ 0029.
Regarding claim 2, Zhou in view of Chen teaches the method of claim 1, wherein whether to reconstruct the decoded images is determined based on the reconstruction-related information (Zhou ¶ 0026, reconstruction with or without the transform).
Regarding claim 6, Zhou in view of Chen teaches a method for processing an image, the method comprising:
encoding the image into a bitstream (Chen ¶ 0017, encoding image data for transmission);
determining a mode for reconstructing a decoded image which is obtained by decoding the bitstream (Chen ¶ 0032, rotation parameters; Zhou ¶ 0024, process code); and
encoding the mode based on reconstruction-related information into the bitstream (id.),
wherein the mode comprises a plurality of candidate modes including flipping, rotating[,] and a combination of the flipping and the rotating (Zhou Fig. 1, various rotate and mirror transforms; Chen ¶ 0032, rotation parameters that may include flipping),
wherein the reconstructing the decoded image comprises rearranging pixels in the decoded image (Zhou ¶¶ 0029–31, Fig. 7; changing pixel addresses), and
wherein the reconstruction-related information is integrated information indicating one among eight candidate modes . . . comprising a 0-degree rotation, a 90-degree rotation, a 180-degree rotation, a 270-degree rotation, a horizontal flipping, a 90-degree rotation and then horizontal flipping, a 180-degree rotation and then horizontal flipping, [and] a 270-degree rotation and then horizontal flipping (Chen Fig. 5, ¶ 0030, rotate 90, 180, and 270 degrees and horizontal and vertical flip are specific rotation engines that can be picked; 0032, Fig. 6A, selecting a rotation parameter that can be a 0 degree rotation or include flipping).
Regarding claim 7, Zhou in view of Chen teaches a method for transmitting a bitstream, the method comprising:
encoding the image into a bitstream (Chen ¶ 0017, encoding image data for transmission);
determining a mode for reconstructing a decoded image which is obtained by decoding the bitstream (Chen ¶ 0032, rotation parameters; Zhou ¶ 0024, process code); and
encoding the mode based on reconstruction-related information into the bitstream (id.); and
transmitting the bitstream (Chen ¶ 0017, encoding image data for transmission),
wherein the mode comprises a plurality of candidate modes including flipping, rotating[,] and a combination of the flipping and the rotating (Zhou Fig. 1, various rotate and mirror transforms; Chen ¶ 0032, rotation parameters that may include flipping),
wherein the reconstructing the decoded image comprises rearranging pixels in the decoded image (Zhou ¶¶ 0029–31, Fig. 7; changing pixel addresses), and
wherein the reconstruction-related information is integrated information indicating one among eight candidate modes . . . comprising a 0-degree rotation, a 90-degree rotation, a 180-degree rotation, a 270-degree rotation, a horizontal flipping, a 90-degree rotation and then horizontal flipping, a 180-degree rotation and then horizontal flipping, [and] a 270-degree rotation and then horizontal flipping (Chen Fig. 5, ¶ 0030, rotate 90, 180, and 270 degrees and horizontal and vertical flip are specific rotation engines that can be picked; 0032, Fig. 6A, selecting a rotation parameter that can be a 0 degree rotation or include flipping).
Conclusion
This Office action has an attached requirement for information for 37 C.F.R. § 1.105. A complete reply to this Office action must include a complete reply to the attached requirement for information. The time period for reply to the attached requirement coincides with the time period for reply to this Office action.
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure:
US 2018/0041774 A1
US 2017/0295356 A1
US 2010/0104221 A1
Applicant's amendment necessitated the new grounds of rejection presented in this Office action. Accordingly, THIS ACTION IS MADE FINAL. See M.P.E.P. § 706.07(a). Applicant is reminded of the extension of time policy as set forth in 37 C.F.R. § 1.136(a).
A shortened statutory period for reply to this final action is set to expire THREE MONTHS from the mailing date of this action. In the event a first reply is filed within TWO MONTHS of the mailing date of this final action and the advisory action is not mailed until after the end of the THREE-MONTH shortened statutory period, then the shortened statutory period will expire on the date the advisory action is mailed, and any nonprovisional extension fee (37 C.F.R. § 1.17(a)) pursuant to 37 CFR 1.136(a) will be calculated from the mailing date of the advisory action. In no event, however, will the statutory period for reply expire later than SIX MONTHS from the mailing date of this final action.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to David N Werner whose telephone number is (571)272-9662. The examiner can normally be reached M--F 7:30--4:00 Central.
Examiner interviews are available via telephone, in-person, and video conferencing using a USPTO supplied web-based collaboration tool. To schedule an interview, applicant is encouraged to use the USPTO Automated Interview Request (AIR) at http://www.uspto.gov/interviewpractice.
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Dave Czekaj can be reached at 571.272.7327. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/David N Werner/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2487
1 This is mathematically equivalent to a vertical flipping.
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